Chickens Winging It

May 9, 1985|By John Naisbitt, Special to the Sun Sentinel

Americans eat twice as much chicken today as they did 20 years ago. On the average, Americans will eat 54 pounds this year, compared to 1976 when we ate only 42.8 pounds. Though still less than beef consumption, which was 94.4 pounds in 1976 and is expected to be 78.6 pounds per person this year, chicken is rapidly closing the gap.

Not only is chicken much cheaper than beef or pork -- a third the price of beef and half the price of pork -- but it`s also higher in protein and lower in fat. Consumers are expected to spend a record $14 billion on chicken products this year. That`s more than 4.2 billion birds.